Gurgaon: With an aim to clean air in Gurgaon where pollution level was all time high in post Diwali week, forest department is going to start 'Green Gurgaon' initiative with the help of RWAs government departments and corporate sector. Under the scheme forest department will plant saplings across the city at available space to increase the green cover in urban area of Gurgaon. "Pollution level in the region was at all time high due to which entire region was under toxic cloud of smog. This was very alarming and there was need to take immediate steps and best way to deal with pollution is to increase green cover," said PWD and forest minister Rao Narbir Singh in Gurgaon on Sunday while announcing that soon forest department will start a drive to increase greenery in Gurgaon. The continuous smog haze over the city has caused several health related problems for the residents as oxygen level has reduced. "Increase in tree cover will help in reducing pollution and produce enough oxygen for the residents," said minister urging RWAs to plant as much tree as they can in their respective areas. He said government departments have been asked to identify the place where they can plant trees with the help of forest department. Welcoming the step environmentalist Amina Shervani said government has lots of land inside the premises of offices of different government departments, which can be used for plantation. "This will help in creating much needed green space within the city," said Shervani. She said involvement of RWAs is essential for maintenance of the trees. Along with increasing the green cover civic agencies are also taking steps to control dust. Keeping in view the direction of NGT over dust control, minister said recently MCG has purchase three vacuum cleaner machine, each machine can clean 10km of road in a night. "This will help in reducing the dust in the air," said Narbir adding that soon MCG will also purchase advance machine for cleaning of sewerage line. Meanwhile talking about the maintenance of Huda sectors transferred to MCG in April-May, Narbir said municipal corporation have made provision of Rs 100 crores for the maintenance of these sectors. "MCG is likely to complete the tender process by December for the maintenance of sectors,' said Narbir.
Source: The Times of India, 13 Nov 2016